Wayne Flanagan

Hello.

[wayneflanagan]

Ahh Hong Kong. What a mad, beautifully juxtaposing city. The history with the brand new, the chaos and the calm, the light and the dark. A true melting pot of sensory overload that will forever hold a place in my heart. 

[wayneflanagan]

Sunday football is a funny old thing. If you’ve ever played you’ll know just what you’re up against to participate in the game you love. As glamorous as the modern game may seem at times, this is absolutely not.

A 90 minute run about over Hackney Marshes doesn’t come cheap, with some charging up to £10 a game for the pleasure. It’s a little less however if you happen to come off early due to that dodgy knee, or perhaps after a ‘fair’ tackle from Big Dave. Add to that to the occasionally unfriendly officials and atrocious weather (not to mention a fair share of hangovers, delayed trains and last minute let downs), it is truly a labour of love for those involved. 

Would we have it any other way? I’m not so sure.

All photos taken throughout the 2015/6 season with a Canon Sure Shot Tele 35mm.

[wayneflanagan]

BBC Tees interview

I was interviewed on BBC Tees recently about Middlesbrough FC’s 2-1 Premier League win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light (21/08/16)

I also gave a preview for the upcoming game against West Bromwich Albion (28/08/16)

[wayneflanagan]

Back In The Game

In case you missed it (or perhaps you just dislike the sport), football is BACK. And so are Middlesbrough FC. Back in the glittering merry-go-round called the Premier League, that is.

A while ago, Sky published a new ad for the forthcoming season. You may have seen it? It’s the one where ‘Brand Beckham™’ runs through various scenes involving different teams and fans. I’m actually in the said ad, around the 13 second mark. Blink and you’ll most definitely miss me, however...

I even spoke to the Gazette about the whole filming process, here.

And speaking of the Gazette, I also took part in a recent fan panel about the opening game of the season vs Stoke City. That’s over here.

[wayneflanagan]

Premier League, Here We Come...

Seems like we’ve been playing friendlies forever, doesn’t it? Well, fear not, real football is BACK with a bang this Saturday as Boro take on the not-so-glamorous Stoke City at the new and improved Riverside. 

The North Sea Producer may have set sail for Nigeria, but Boro will look to reproduced the cup final atmosphere found in the final home game of last season against Brighton. Flags waving, Pig Bag on blast, Steve Gibson tribute ringing out, the LOT. And maybe even a bit of sunshine this time? Maybe.

So, what can we expect after our seven year absence from the top flight? Well, a lot has changed, that’s for sure. There’s more exposure, more analysis, more criticism, more post-game deconstruction after a defeat and more national hyperbole after a win. Social media, in particularly Twitter, has also changed the way we as fans interact and follow our teams, and that wasn’t around when Jérémie Aliadière was leading the line.

But just how optimistic should we be? Well, upon first impressions, Boro should be able to hold their own and then some. Just take a look around us. Hull looked doomed, let’s be honest. Teams like Swansea, Burnley and Sunderland looked distinctively average. Elsewhere, the lower to mid-table Watford, Bournemouth, West Brom and Crystal Palace is exactly what Boro will be trying to emulate. This is what survival looks like, after all. Upwards of that, the heavyweights start to come into play. Not forgetting, however, that Boro have more than matched four of them in recent cup competitions. 

We now know that anything is possible in the Premier League after last season’s 5000/1 title winning performance from Leicester, so Boro shouldn’t be fearful of any opponents this season. What’s more important to remember, though, is Leicester’s first season in the top flight, in which they came within a whisker of returning to the Championship. Only a dramatic run in saved them from relegation, in a campaign that saw Mahrez, Drinkwater, Vardy, Wes Morgan and co fail to get to grips with the Premier League’s ruthless nature. The lessons for Boro to learn are clear to see, and anything more than survival will be seen as a bonus.

On to new additions then, and of course there was going to be many, Boro’s swift and ambitious recruitment has pleased almost all with so far, with a couple more still to be added. The additions of proven ‘winners’ like Valdes and Negredo will the big attractions for many. But there’s also Victor Fischer, Antonio Barragan, Marten de Roon and Bernardo Espinosa. That’s a quality mix of experience and potential. Of course, the collapse of Neven Subotic’s proposed move has been a blow, but Boro still should have enough to hold their own on the defensive front. Last season’s title of the fewest conceded in the football league surely won’t count for nothing.

It’s also a time for some of the other squad members to truly make their mark in the big league. Ayala, Clayton, Albert Adomah and George Friend will no doubt want to make up for the years spent fighting it out in the Championship. Even Victor Valdes and Alvaro Negredo will feel as though they have unfinished business. Gaston Ramirez too.

Elsewhere, Jordan Rhodes in another interesting one. A man with the best Championship goal record bar none. He’s done it at every level so far, and he’s looked very sharpe in pre-season too. It’s funny, because when he arrived pundits were quick to state the fact that he wasn’t particularly quick, or strong, or not the best with his head, even. Yet he still produces the goods regularly. Remind you of anyone? I’m talking about Fabrizio Ravanelli, by the way. It’s a big year for him, and by no means am I expecting a Liverpool style hatrick, but I’ve got no doubt he can produce in the Premier League, he always seems to find a way.

The town is buzzing. Boro are back on the map. It's going to be a long ol' ride, so let’s enjoy it, yeah? UTB.

[wayneflanagan]

[Just for your information, I’ve been buying vinyl for over five years now, so I can officially get away with sniggering titles like that]

So, vinyl ey? Everyone’s favourite hobby since 2014. Tesco now stock all the hits. Aldi too. HMV sold one turntable every minute over the Christmas period. Wow. The vinyl market is now up 500% in the last three years. Crazy. What a great time we’re all having with our records. And since that time there’s been no escaping the news that vinyl is BACK, here’s some thoughts:

Firstly, let me tell you why I buy vinyl. It’s because MP3′s are crap. They’re nothing but imaginary, megabyte hogging bits of insignificance. I’m glad they’re going to be defunct soon (well, they will in a few years when John from Liverpool discovers streaming and realises he’s been a moron for the last 10 years, paying 79p for a single that is 8MB in size. C’mon, John!).

Personally, I buy vinyl because I REALLY like the song, EP, LP, whatever. It holds some sort of significance, if you will, and it goes back to our youth, you know, actually having something physical in our hands, to put on your shelf and gaze at, to show and chat about with your mates etc etc etc. CD’s, on the other hand, are horrendously packaged, fragile little things that are better used as ice scrapers for the car. Granted, I can see why we all moved on from cassettes in the 80s, but christ, they’re awful, aren’t they?

I love the huge design and intricate details when you buy a record (particularly a 12″), I can see it very clearly, almost like a poster. Some records are truly pieces of art. 

I like going to record shops, record fairs, charity shops and the like too. I buy a lot more ‘old’ records than I do new. They have more character, quite simply... (and, while I’m not going to get on my high horse about audio fidelity here, I do happen to be fond of the fuzz, flicks and specs that play as the needle runs through the grooves...).

In recent years, I’ve also come around to the idea of paid streaming services, well, Spotify to be exact (I even did a previous blog post on it here). Soundcloud and Bandcamp have always looked after us in terms of new and independent acts, but Spotify has got a great deal better in the last couple of years in terms of available catalogue and - also very important - usability. 

What it comes down to, I think, is ‘access vs ownership’. I don’t want to own an MP3 file. Why would I? Occasionally, I may want to stream a song by, say The Kinks, on my commute home from work, but that doesn’t mean I want to own it. However, if I hear another Kinks song that I like also, then I might want to invest in the LP. It’s the same for new music too. I’ve heard a handful of tracks from the new DIIV album, and they sound great. Naturally, it’s now on my ‘to buy’ list once released. And so, I want to own the stuff I care about and to ‘borrow’ the stuff I feel less passionate about. That’s why the vinyl / Spotify thing works out great for me.

As for the future, well, it’s difficult to see how the ‘resurgence’ can continue unless people do actually use vinyl as their physical preference. Who knows, they may do just that. After all, it’s an easy gift, isn’t it? And god knows we need some sort of tangible pleasures in a world full of cloud based technology.

I do wonder what will happen when Dalston resident Katie realises that she has 20+ 12″ bits of plastic from the 99p sale section taking up vital space in her very, very small, overpriced bedroom? What will happen when she doesn’t see her pretty ‘vinyls’ as ‘retro’ anymore? Will Urban Outfitters downsize their racks to make way for the next Kim Kardashian selfie book or more £9 jars of Reese's peanut butter? The mind boggles...

And, look at this, vinyl makes up just 8% of UK music revenue. You know what that is? Not a great deal, basically. So yes, to yours and my amazement, it would seem that people do still buy CD’s (I know, crazy isn’t it?), a lot of them in fact. We’re not quite full on mainstream with vinyl just yet, despite what the media may have you believing.

Ultimately, people are making that migration from paying nothing to paying a little for music, (or from ‘freemium’ to ‘premium’ as some in the industry like to phrase it...). With that migration taking a lot longer than the industry would like, naturally, labels are rinsing the whole vinyl event for all that it’s worth. They do have an extraordinarily large amount of profit to make up, after all. This isn’t the music industry circa 1995, y’know.

[wayneflanagan]

Fear of The New

I used to really dislike Spotify. To me, it was that mainstream thing that meant absolutely nothing to the new and exciting stuff that we post on 1FTP. So previously, Soundcloud was my destination to create playlists (this is before it began eating its own foot, remember...), because, well, it was a lot easier for everyone, wasn’t it? But of late (and by late I mean the past 12 months), there has been a noticeable shift in the speed at which ‘newer’ music has found its way on to Spotify. Indie labels and artists have come around to its potential and overall reach (more so than the majors, some would say). It is the leading streaming service around the world, after all. Add that with the fact that it’s getting easier and easier to upload you own music to all streaming services (thanks to the likes of Tunecore, Ditto, Spinnup etc), and there you have it, Spotify is now just as integral as iTunes. It’s not perfect, not at all. There’s still many songs and many ‘proper new’ acts still missing (take London band BabeHeaven for example), but I’m now a Spotify convert, fully fledged, premium subscription and all. So much so in fact, that I’ve created a playlist, purely dedicated to the best new material on the platform. So yeah, go follow ‘Fear of The New’, it’s 100% selected by humans.

[wayneflanagan]

Middlesbrough FC Season Review 2015/16

As a Middlesbrough FC fan, we’ve had our fair share of rollercoaster rides in recent years. Season 2015/16 certainly didn’t disappoint us. So, just before we turn our full attention to the Premier League, here’s one last recap on a pretty unforgettable season. 

A strong start to banish the Wembley nightmares

In one full season, Boro had gone from mid-table obscurity to fully fledged title challenging material. If anything, we probably over achieved last year, but in any case, the pressure was now on, and fans were eager for success that seemed to be so close at long last! 

After a muted start at Preston, wins over Bolton and Oldham followed, and but for a last minute equalizer at Derby, we would have just beaten one of our promotion rivals in their backyard. Alas, we conceded, but we knew the potential for Boro to really kick on was definitely there for all to see.

Bounceback ability

After a shock 0-1 defeat at home to Bristol City, it’s safe to say that Boro returned to earth with a bump. The Championship reared its unforgiving head once again. A kick up the backside was what we possibly needed when viewed in hindsight. It kickstarted a seven game unbeaten run, and that’s the sort of form you need when you’re challenging for promotion place. It also ended away day hoodoos at the likes of Notts Forest and Sheff Wed. 

Similarly, the steely win away at Wolves in October was pivotal. After a team bonding session round Grant’s to discuss the below par performances away at Reading and Cardiff, Boro finally showed some resilience in the face of adversity, or when going a goal down, if you like. Talk of being unable to comeback and a lack of Plan B were squashed, and Boro firmly rubbed stamped their intentions to nail down a top two spot.

January Business

We needed reinforcements. We knew that. But after beating Derby at the Riverside Boro were flying. "Might as as well give them the title now!" some claimed, clearly having never heard the phrase 'typical Boro'.

The arrival of Jordan Rhodes gave everyone a boost. Plus, the loan signings of Kike Sola (for a few weeks, anyway), Ritchie de Laet and Gaston Ramirez added depth, versatility and creativity at just the right time, with the latter proving to be a shrewd piece of business come the end of the season.

It was also a muted goodbye to the occasionally brilliant free kick magnet Diego Fabbrini and fan favourite / not quite fan favourite Kike Garcia. Oh, and “La Bamba” too, which was possibly the biggest loss of the season. Sigh. I'll always remember that 25 minute rendition away at Brentford.

The inevitable wobble

Ahh yes, those testing rimes. A last minute defeat to basement battlers Bristol City (again!) ended the unbeaten run with a thud. Closely followed by another defeat to Nottingham Forest and not quite convincing draws with Blackburn and MK Dons. An unbeaten February restored faith, but further loses at Blackburn and Rotherham took tensions to breaking point for some fans. 

Yes, we were low on confidence, but just how far the club has come in the short space of two years is remarkable. It doesn’t seem that long ago when Curtis Main was leading the forward line, or Frazer Richardson was ‘doing a job at left back’. That progression has a lot to do with Aitor Karanka (and Steve Gibson, of course) and fans should not lose sight of that so easily.

Bizarrely then, some did exactly that, and were calling for heads to roll while we were still top of the league. It’s a perpetually negative attitude that some modern day fans seem to have. A real disappointment to see, but it’s the nature of the beast, I guess.

And yet, the worse was yet to come. After Aitor’s walkout, Charlton away proved to be the lowest point of the season by far. It was dismal, lacklustre, hopeless and borderline pathetic, and the only point at which I thought we’d truly fluffed automatic promotion. More importantly, though, it made our great club look like our black and white neighbours down the A19. Order was needed. And quickly.

The resurgence 

Aitor returned after the horror show at Charlton to seemingly new found harmony at Rockliffe Park, but one that desperately needed a reaction in a huge game against Hull City. Enter David Nugent and a last minute winner, a last minute winner that would spark a 10 game unbeaten streak and a flurry of ‘late late shows’. And with that...

The art of the late, late show

Hull, Reading, Bolton... what drama. Once is lucky, twice is great, three times is no fluke. Yes we might do it the hard way, but do it we did. 

Morning... pic.twitter.com/1SGyefpGoO

— Barry Cellnet (@BarryCellnet) April 14, 2016

And not forgetting...

Clean sheet kings

The very core of Boro’s promotion push. The importance of the defensive unit can’t be overlooked. 

A win at Old Trafford

Another glorious scalp. 10 thousand smoggies watch as we beat Rooney and co. More of the same next year, please.

The rise and rise of Nsue

An incredible rise from everyone’s new favourite player. Take a bow, Emilio... 

One Ali Brownlee

Gone, but never forgotten. 

[wayneflanagan]

Ohhh Gaston Ramirez!

Let’s not beat around the bush, Classton™ (trademark pending) Ramirez has been absolutely outstanding for Boro since his arrival in January. He’s proved to be a vital link between the workmanlike duo of Clayton and Leadbitter and the attacking options of Rhodes, Nugent or Stuani. 

For Boro fans who’ve only had a brief glimpse of his talents, it’s curious to read some comments from Southampton fans saying he’s got a bad attitude, poor work rate and has had more than enough chances to shine in an unconvincing four year spell with them. Others say he’s found his level in the Championship. Boro fans, I’m sure, will disagree.

As for lack of effort, he’s work rate has been tremendous since joining Boro. He’s chased everything, and bombed forward whenever possible to support Boro’s often lone striker. He’s even pulled up with cramp a few times, showing just how much he’s put into his short spell on Teesside.

Costing £12m, the man is clearly talented. And I don’t mean Afonso Alves talented. No, no. He’s proved this season that under the right circumstances, he can finally show all the doubters what he is really capable of. His link up play with Jordan Rhodes and David Nugent has been first class, his deft first touch, intelligent passing and probing runs have rubber stamped his place as Boro’s number 10. His seven goals have only added to fans’ eagerness to sign him on a permanent basis. 

Now, personally, I’d be happy to drive him down to the south coast, pick up a few bits and say his goodbyes, only to take hime back up the A1 and drop him off at Neil Bouser’s doorstep (providing the pen for him to sign with, obviously).

There has been talk of bumper offers from China, a renewed attempt from Bologna, and even a whisper of Southampton wanting to extend his contract. For Boro, however, a former £12m player on a free represents a sound bit of business in a world over overinflated transfer prices. 

So, would he put pen to paper? Well, why not? He’s been playing regularly, is enjoying himself under a manager that believes in him and is clearly benefitting from having a few mates around the changing room...

Maybe, just maybe, it has finally clicked with Gaston’s time in England, slowly but surely realising just what is required to perform consistently in such a relentless environment. At 25, you would be signing a player with his best years ahead of him, at a time when he looks physically and mentally stronger than his unsuccessful time with the Saints. If he can stay injury free then there’s no reason why he can’t go on to be a vital player in the Premier League, I’ve no doubt about it. With Boro, though, naturally.

[wayneflanagan]

Stronger Together

Football can be a fickle old game. Managers come and go far too quickly in the revolving door of top level management. Roman Abramovich and Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan seem to think that throwing money at glamorous continental mangers will somehow bring instant success and please everyone in the surrounding area, and in the meantime turn the club into a global megabrand. All very easy then, guys.

If that’s the route you’re going down then we would not be any better off than Derby, for example. Paul Clement was sacked after only seven months in charge, despite being in fifth place and only five points behind then leaders Hull. What’s the point in investing a lot of money, giving a manager a platform from which to work from, only to pull the rug from under his feet just as things start getting a little tricky?

If you do subscribe to the notion of pressing the panic button when you’re going through a rough patch, then you are in fact only contributing to the ridiculous pace in which some clubs seem to go through managers. 

Sure, I get it, football is a results game, we all know that. But when there is a long term project in place why not try and give a person an allotted amount of time to try and at least succeed with his own implied philosophy?

When tensions are high and there is an apparent £170m at stake, it’s only natural for fans to get edgy, but as a club Middlesbrough have been on the rise ever since Tony Mowbray departed. We’ve improved on the pitch, attendances are up, the players and fans are united. The buzz is back, and has been for two season now. That, in large part, is down to Aitor Karanka and his staff. Why throw that away because we were not home and dry by March? The Championship is a brutal ol’ slog. Just because you invest a bit of money and develop a winning expectation, that does not mean you have a divine right to be promoted back to the promised land. Just look at Leicester City. They should have gone down you might say. But they didn’t, did they? They only went and threw up the biggest surprise in modern football. How’s that for expectation?

The below tweets are left here without judgement, but simply as a simple reminder that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. 

See you all in the Premier League.

[wayneflanagan]

Down By The Riverside

Let’s be honest, looking at The Riverside Stadium now, design wise, it doesn’t exactly strike you as the most creative of structures, does it? 

It was in fact a very early adopter of the, erm, ‘safe’, new stadium designs that clubs who were relocating around the turn of the century decided to use. Think Sunderland (Stadium of Light, 1997), Derby (iPro, 1997) and Reading (Madejski, 1998), for example. 

What the Riverside may lack in adventurous design (we purposely left the marmite-like structure to Anish Kapoor’s ‘Temenos’, isn’t that right, Steve?) it can more than make up for in atmosphere. In fact, on the right day, when at capacity, there aren’t many better places to be. After all, it’s the people that make the day what it is, not the concrete building they’re housed in.

There have been so many great nights over The Riverside’s tender 21 years. The European nights are up there, of course, the 3-3 vs Liverpool (otherwise known as ‘that’ Ravanelli hatrick), the 4-1 vs Oxford League 1 title decider, hell, even last year’s play off victory against Brentford too. One of the best, unquestionably, was that truly memorable League Cup semi-final of 1998 against Liverpool, who included Fowler, McManaman, and one Karl Heinz Riedle (Google hime, kids) in their team that day. Personally speaking, it was one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever witnessed at a Boro home game. 

[Image via The Gazette]

A designated ‘flag day’ (remember them?), The Riverside was packed to the rafters. A sea of red white lit up the stadium (with the help of a few foam hands, obviously...) that produced a tsunami of noise under the bright evening lights. It was magnificent. Of course, Paul Merson’s goal inside two minutes set the tone nicely for what was to be a momentous night on Teesside.

More of the same is required for Saturday’s high stakes game against Brighton. 

See you in Centre Square for the after party once we’ve clinched promotion. 

[wayneflanagan]

The Spirit of Teesside

‘The Boro Way’ - A certain way in which Middlesbrough Football Club goes about its business on the playing football. Often climatic. Not advised for the faint of heart.

Seemingly, you can always rely on Boro to give your nervous system somewhat of a beating. ‘Easy’ isn’t really an option, and going back 24 years to the game against Wolves in 1992, you’ll see a prime example of the above phrase at work. 

Last day of the season and there are three teams left in the promotion race; Ipswich, Boro & Derby. Boro need a win to guarantee promotion to the inaugural season of the glitzy new ‘Premier League’, a draw would see Derby go up with Ipswich. 

Boro should of have been awarded a penalty in the second half, which would have seen defender Lawrie Madden shown a red card in the process. Instead, they get a free kick on the edge of the box. Cue ‘typical Boro’, then...

And so it begins. Nicky Mohan is sent off for a second yellow card. Andy Mutch scores minutes later to leave the traveling fans heartbroken. 

We’re out of it. That’s it. Over. They’ve bottled it again. Useless cu*ts!

BUT HANG ON A MINUTE.

Jon Gittens (of all people!) grabs unlikely equalizer from a corner, and then, as if possessed, Jamie Pollock bulldozes his way through the Wolves defence as if his life depends on it. We’ll call it pure Teesside grit, if you will, a steel-made pacemaker that kicks into action when all dreams are hanging by a thread, ready to power the whole team over the line when they need a helping hand most (it would probably be deemed as a foul these days, but anyway...). Paul Wilkinson is on hand to head home the winner, which sees Boro to return to top flight football once again.

It’s wasn’t a solitary moment of triumph though, far from it in fact. 

The list of victories in the ugly face of adversity goes on... Basel, Steaua, the majority of the 2004 Carling Cup Final, hell, at home to Oxford in 1998 too. And it all starts on the terrace, where us fans direct so much noise and verbal energy towards the playing field that it doesn’t matter what country or city the current players originate from, for 90 minutes they might as well have lived next door but one to Stewy Downing’s Nana over Pally Park. One team, as the saying goes, all fighting for the same cause.

There’s two to go before we’re back where we belong. Spirit is everything. Given we’re at home on the final day, let’s have some more scenes like this, please...

[wayneflanagan]

From Chaos To Calm

A year is a long time in modern football, just ask any Leicester City fan. 

It’s almost a year to the day (April 25) when Boro visited Craven Cottage in search of a massive three points that would keep the pressure firmly on Watford and Bournemouth at the Championship summit. At that, and indeed this, stage of the season, it’s about nothing other than winning at all costs. Dropping points isn’t really in the script with three games to go, and one slip inevitably lets your rivals sneak in as the race to the post goes into overdrive.

A quite fascinating game ensued on that Sunny day in west London. A penalty, a red card, a spirited comeback, heartache, the game had everything, apart from a Boro win that is. 

A year is a also a very long time for a newbie manager. So when Aitor waved Dimi up for the corner kick at the death he had only one thing on his mind, to score that all important goal and claim three points. Drawing, he sensed, would not be enough. It’s interesting to hear, then, that he now speaks of calm when recent games have entered the red zone and Boro are needing to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial bag. Hull, Reading and Bolton all showed that if you are confident enough in your own team’s ability, don’t rush things too much and have total belief in yourself and the players around you, then late, late goals are more than possible.

The experience of coming so close to the promised land has obviously taken it’s toll on Aitor’s 'send the keeper up’ approach, and undoubtedly his new-found zen also comes from the change in personnel, after all, it doesn’t hurt to have the Championship tried and test duo of Jordan Rhodes and David Nugent to rely upon when times get a little testing.

For the record, I still think Ross McCormack would have scored the winner even if Dimi had stayed back inside his own half, but it’s the sentiment that’s important here. The smell of slight desperation in our attempt to reach the Premier League has now been replaced by a determined, steely Teesside resilience that so far has proved to be exactly what Boro have needed when the clock is running down. It remains to be seen if it is enough to get them over the finish line in the coming weeks, however, but there’s no denying that we’ve already come a long, long way, baby.

[wayneflanagan]

Because We Must...

[Image via The Gazette]

Before Enrique ‘Kike’ Garcia signed on July 11, 2014, you would have to go way back to the dark, dark days of 2010 to see a day when Middlesbrough FC spent over £2m on a player (Kevin Thomson, sorry to remind you).

One can only imagine how Tony Mowbray would have felt if he had been given such funds to spend. Alas, it was never going to transpire that way under Mogga’s austerity ridden reign.

When Aitor Karanka was laying out his plans for the 2014/15 season, naturally, (remember that horrid eight game spell towards the back end of the previous campaign where Boro couldn’t muster a single goal?) all eyes were firmly on bolstering a rather toothless strike force. 

Kike then was somewhat of a surprise signing for fans, no matter how much of a sharped eyed Football Manager scout you were. Other loanees arrived shortly after, such as Jelle Vossen & Patrick Bamford, as would a number of freebies (Damia Abella, Tomas Mejias, Emilio Nsue), but Kike was Aitor’s first real statement of intent, the first ‘big money’ signing in an attempt to fully establish a team of his own. 

Little known outside of Spanish borders, the second division striker had 44 goals in games for 144 for Murcia. And while Kike started well in his time on Teesside (in both seasons, it must be said), he never got that consistent goalscoring run under his belt. You couldn’t fault his work rate, or deft first touch, even if more often than not it was far, far too deep inside his own half. His first season ended with 12 goals in all competitions. Hardly groundbreaking you might say, and considerably outdone by Bamford’s 19 goal Player of The Year showing. 

Now, just for a second, imagine if Kike took the penalties too, just like he did for Murcia. That’s 20 goals, potentially. Now that would have been an impressive return on your first season in English football.

As a side note here, I do believe that strikers should take the penalties, and that goes for Jordan Rhodes right now also. Goals improve confidence, and, no matter how well you’ve played during a game or how much you’ve ‘grafted for the benefit of the team’, ultimately, as a striker, you will be judged on your goal return.

Last year’s overachievement brought us within one performance away from the promised land. But we fell short. And while last year brought a renewed optimism and togetherness between club and fans, deep down, we knew that tweaks in personnel were needed in order for the team to take the next step. That change came a week or two after the disappointing day out at Wembley, when the impending arrivals of David Nugent (30), Stewart Downing (31) and Cristhian Stuani (almost 29) were put into action, all bolstering that vital ‘experience’ column.

Like I said previously, Kike did indeed start the 2015/16 season well, scoring a double against Bolton, and then away at Derby. But what Aitor has come to realise is that nothing short of ‘prolific’ will clinch you promotion from the Championship. Enter then Jordan Rhodes and £9m from Steve Gibson’s back pocket. That’s what a player who has scored nearly 200 goals in the Football League costs you. But that (we hope) will also guarantee you goals.

With next seasons stakes higher then ever before (hello new TV deal), Aitor and Steve Gibson known more than anyone that Boro can’t be expected to finally crack this relentless league without taking a somewhat pricey gamble. And with that gamble there is absolutely no room for sentiment, uncertainty and more often than not, inexperience.

Modern football is a fickle ol’ cut throat game won and lost on margins of minute proportions. A deflection here, an inch of two there, and before you know it your season has swung in a whole new direction. 

Just like Jelle Vossen alongside him (possibly the unluckiest man on Teesside during the 2014/15 season), Kike’s time could be seen as a case of ‘ifs and buts’, but as fans who have been desperate for ‘the good times’ since circa 2004, we’ll always cherish the goals at Man City and Brentford, this wonderful departing letter, and, of course, that song. 

So long, mate, and thanks.

Never forget... pic.twitter.com/WBEEQ1z9Qk

[wayneflanagan]

Some recent photos of Teesside & London.

[wayneflanagan]

Winter 2013 / 2014 playlist

Winter's gone, spring is here (apparently). This is a playlist of songs that guided the new musical ship through those long, dark nights.

1. Eagulls - Tough Luck

Well done Leeds, you've made a lot of angry young teens (who, like the rest of us, are undoubtedly sick to the back teeth of wet West London waste band after wet west London waste band) rather happy.

2. Ben Khan - Savage

The sound of a man coming into his own. Keep going, Ben, we'll all forget that Jai Paul one soon anyway.

3. Future Islands - Waiting On You

Oh, the power of a live performance. They've been doing this for over ten years now, so it's nice to see some good guys (finally) come out #winning.

4. School - SoLong

*Bass face* -  a perfect sub 3 minute power-dream-pop track. The end.

5. Cymbals - Erosion

6. SALES - Chinese New Year

Oh how superb. Effortless charm with the most infectious of voices.

7. Girl Friend - Perfume

Something very alluring about this one. It could definitely be seen as 'indie cindie' territory for some, but no, it's not. In fact, it's quite a perfect introduction.

8. Whistlejacket - Melt

Well yeah, the London youngsters struck gold with this one. Good live too, with the lead singer showing a strong likening to Cole Smith from DIIV.

9. Posse - Shut Up

Wonderful organic (yep, organic) feeling band, talking through songs and letting everything flow and weave into its correct place. 

10. IBV - Left Here To Die I 

Favourite thing in ages. Brutally simplistic, honest, and raw. Magnificent. 

[wayneflanagan]

Not updated this page in a while, so here goes. Around Christmas time, the 23rd to be precise, Glasgow's Life Model released new single "Come Round", an 'epic' whirl of immersive noise and the follow up to debut EP last April. Despite not being one bit synth-pop - and not exactly radio friendly at nearly six minutes - it still found it's way onto Radio 1, Fake DIY & The Fly, amongst others. Looks like there's hope for music yet. You can buy it here.